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Bad news, good news and mangoes

Senior Correspondent Mike Causey is on vacation. This column originally
appeared June 18, 2012.

Don't you hate it when somebody says "I have good news and I have bad news. Which
do you want first?" I usually ask for the bad news first because it seems like
the manly thing to do. But either way, it can be problematic.

So for federal workers and retirees the situation is:

There is bad news and good news tempered by some not-so-bad,
but not-all-that-good news.

The problem, if you work for the federal government these
days, is that people don't know whether the news is good or bad, even after they
have heard it.

Here's the deal:

Nonpostal federal workers have been under a pay freeze for two years, and
Congress is making noises like it will extend that freeze for at least another two
years. That's the bad news, unless you consider the alternative which could
include furloughs and/or layoffs.

The Obama administration, which proposed the original two-year (2011 and
2012) pay freeze, says enough is enough, proposing a 0.5 percent hike — but
only after Congress passes a budget. Since lawmakers have a deal in place
funding the government for the six months of the fiscal year, you won't see that
pay raise until at least April. While that's not enough to take the kids to Disney
World, or maybe even
out to dinner. But it would be a positive step in the right direction. Sort of.

Retirees (people who get federal, military or Social Security retirement
benefits) went without cost of living adjustments for two years. That's because
the cost of living (as measured by the Consumer Price Index) was flat, or actually
dropped. But the good news...

In April, a slight rise in the CPI indicated that the retirees were on track
to get a 1.7 percent COLA next January. Not a king's ransom, not a princely sum,
but better than a sharp stick in the eye. But before you break out the sparkling
water, some not so good news...

In May, the cost of living went down slightly, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics. That's a sign that the still sluggish economy is, well, still
sluggish. Slightly more so in May than in April. And that means that the COLA
retirees are looking at now (which was 1.7 percent in April) has dropped to 1.5
percent as of May.

Bad news, good news, followed by not-all-that-bad-but-still-not-
so-good news.

There are four months left to go in the retiree COLA countdown.
The bad-news-good-news is that if the CPI continues to drop it will be because of
lower gasoline prices and reduces prices for key staple items. If it declines
enough, retirees could get a much smaller raise, up to and including nothing.
(The saving grace is that in times of deflation, retirees benefits are not
reduced).

The good news is that if retirees get a substantial increase in
January, it will mean that inflation is back, oil prices are again spiking, your
vacation (if any) will cost more and half the population of Greece may have moved
to Germany.

Meantime, as my old uncle use to say all the time, things could be
worse.

If you figure out what that means, please drop me a line.

Meantime, my boss asked me to drop by her office as soon as I finish
this. I'm supposed to bring a burlap sack, two mangoes, some smelling salts (??)
and a recent issue of the Federal Register. She said she has good news and bad news for
me.

What's the most environmentally friendly meat? It could be buzzing around you.
NPR's food blog, The Salt, reports that
grasshoppers, crickets and beetles are "four times more efficient at converting
grasses into protein-packed meat than cattle," all while generating fewer
greenhouse gases.

Integrated health record
tests DoD's agile acquisition aspirationsThe departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs both want to develop a single
electronic medical record system that both agencies can use by 2017. But officials
say getting there is going to require speedy development and agile acquisition
mindset, a big change from the traditional DoD culture for developing big systems.

NARA claims progress against backlog
of classified papers
Ninety percent of backlogged papers have been assessed and sent to agencies for
review and 42 million pages have been released to the public, according to the
National Archives and Records Administration. Despite this apparent success,
unexpected problems may cause the government to miss the 2013 deadline to clear
the backlog.